China and India seem to be resetting ties. Li Xiasan, the Organization Department head of Yunnan Province and Central Committee member of the Communist Party, visited India in September 2017, becoming the first Chinese official to visit India since the Doklam standoff.

The 19th Party Congress will be a public line-up of top officials who will be handpicked by President Xi to navigate China’s future. After the Congress, China is likely to align Hong Kong’s economic development closer to its own interests and national priorities.

Lawfare is “a form of asymmetric warfare, consisting of using the legal system against an enemy, such as by damaging or delegitimizing them, tying up their time or winning a public relations victory.” China and the US both use it with regard to the South China Sea.

As of July 2017, China has allocated more than USD 100 billion to pay for Belt and Road Initiaitve projects, including the massive USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and a pan-Asian high-speed railway.

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s bonhomie towards India at the 9th BRICS Summit ran contrary to his earlier hardline rhetoric during the two-month long Doklam stand-off. It can be rightly argued that BRICS acted as a coolant for Sino-Indian tension.

China followed the Soviet socialist model of development in 1949, which was economically characterized by public ownership of resources. The housing model acknowledged the general logic and ideological features of state socialism.

China is rapidly ageing as Chinese people marry later and have fewer children. This is leading to the perpetuation of the “4-2-1” family structure in China, in which four grandparents and two parents all compete to share the affection of just one grandchild.

All eyes in the next few months will be on how former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will play his cards vis-à-vis the Pakistan army. If one were to look beyond the domestic ramifications, the first point which needs to be closely examined is how China has reacted to the instability.

In early August 2017, Japan lodged a protest with China over its gas exploration in a disputed area of the East China Sea. Confirming the presence of a Chinese drillship close to Tokyo’s proposed median line, Japan accused China of conducting “unilateral development.”